A walk down memory lane to a weekend in early June, 2006

There’s been some talk, recently, about the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I visited the place back in the early summer of 2006, and then wrote about it in Journeys Through Darkness: A Biography of award-winning, legally blind photographer Kurt Weston.

Here’s an excerpt:

“All aboard!”

I’ve always considered these two words part of some script, a symbol of departure, separation, tears, and heartache… an ending. I’ve never thought of them as actually being used in real life. But there I was, on an early summer morning [in 2006,] settled comfortably in my seat [as these] two words set the train in motion.

“All aboard!”

The conductor’s voice was still ringing in my ears as [we] pulled slowly out of New York City’s Penn Station, heading to Washington, D.C.. Unlike the movies, my first Amtrak experience was not the farewell-y, teary kind, but quite the opposite. [Looking back] it symbolized the beginning of a [personal] journey and […] spiritual transformation.

I was on my way to attend the VSA art opening event, personally invited by [photographer] Kurt Weston. He was one of the 23 featured artists.

Formally known as Very Special Arts and founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, VSA is an international nonprofit organization promoting and showcasing the works of [national and international] artists living with disabilities. Kurt Weston is a featured artist and a member of VSA’s Board of Directors in California. Each year, he attends the annual VSA National Convention in Washington, D.C.

[…]

One of Weston’s winning entries welcomed us as we entered the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where the event took place. The featured photograph, Losing the Light, is part of Weston’s Blind Vision series of self-portraits [which] shows people the physical and emotional impact that vision loss can have on an individual.

AIDS-related [CMV] retinitis has left the photographer [legally] blind. […] While searching for a way to represent his “visual disturbance,” Kurt Weston decided to use something obstructive in the photograph to block viewers from seeing his face. He started by spraying cleaning foam all over a glass, and wiping the foam away with his hand. Then he pressed his face and hands against the glass, while photographing through the glass, using a self-timer. “You see my hand pushing away the foam, which is what I would love to do,” he says explaining the technique. “I would like to be able to wipe away all that cotton that keeps floating in front of my eye and get a clear view of what I want to see out in the world.

[In the photograph] I could see the artist’s face and fingertips pressing against the glass [as if] trying to push away the foam, and yet I couldn’t recognize him. I reached out and aligned my fingertips with the foamy imprints. And they almost overlapped, briefly pulling me inside the photograph, allowing me to see the world through the artist’s eyes, from within the darkness.

Fast forward to present day. The journey ahead appears to take us into another kind of darkness. And yet, nobody seems to know or care….

How dark and dangerous will it get? How long will it last?

Are we going to survive it?

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Alina Oswald